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| Her with her cute big ears! |
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| Hamming it up! |
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Pictures!
Pictures from today. We had a great ride today! She is such a sweet mare and is SO easy to handle on the ground. I would trust a 5 year old to walk her around. She is that easy. I would like to think I had a part in that :)
Wound up!
Yes, extremely wound up actually! We came back to work on Monday after our weekend to frisky horses. I actually have no idea how much they get outside but it sure isnt enough for this girl! The funny thing (and nice) is that she is great to tie/groom/tack up and you would never know how much energy she has until you put her in the round pen. Luckily we still had it up on Monday. She was crazy! She wasnt to attentive and it took much longer then I planned to get her paying attention to me instead of just trying to rip around the round pen. After I felt like she was listening to me I took her out and mounted her in the other half of the arena. Once again right into a circle we went as she was pretty amped. This time she didn't seem like she was going to offer any bucks/rears/etc just ready to go and not focusing. Once again she settled down in our circle and we were on a bigger circle in no time. This week we are working on starting to establish correct inside bend. Tracking left she tries to throw her body to your inside leg and stick her nose to the outside slightly and tip her poll inside. Basically going around looking like a mess! She was very resistant to getting of my inside leg. Tracking right she was much better but then we had the problem of her throwing her shoulder to the outside now instead of inside. It was better towards the end so im hoping today will be easier for the both of us!
It is hard because it seems like we are on a expedited program (compared to how I would start my horses) so I feel like we need to accomplish a lot in one day however it is stuff that takes horses quite a while to understand. Especially since you have to have a lot of pieces put together to achieve the overall goal and I feel as if we are trying to get the end result without all the little details.
It is hard because it seems like we are on a expedited program (compared to how I would start my horses) so I feel like we need to accomplish a lot in one day however it is stuff that takes horses quite a while to understand. Especially since you have to have a lot of pieces put together to achieve the overall goal and I feel as if we are trying to get the end result without all the little details.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wow.. that was a long time!
So I started this blog so I could keep track of Roses progress throughout the year. Then... while starting our under saddle work we basically made very little progress for about 4 weeks. So right after my last post I would have just written the same thing every day:
"Put the saddle on Rose, she danced around. Round penned Rose, she was decent for it. Tried to mount Rose, she protested!" Basically the 2nd half of the first term!
She has shown signs of some really rough handling (not from current owners!) and I think she has some deep trust issues. We spent many, many weeks round penning then having someone hold her as I put my foot in the stirrup and hopped around her until she stood still. Finally I actually got to mount her about 2.5 weeks before the end of the term. We then spent the next 2 weeks mounting and petting as she hunched her back SO bad and just felt like a complete ticking time bomb. Once we got to start walking (with a ground person leading) she was very unsure of it. Very hunchy with her back still and had problems going forward. We went backwards and sideways and sometimes started going up, yeah it was real fun!
Then the Monday before class ended for the term it was like all the sudden she was fine. I mounted her as she stood still and had the ground person lead her around the round pen a few times then she unclipped us and we were on our own! Not only did we walk but we also trotted and she was awesome. Typical green bean things such as trying to halt a lot but never offered anything naughty. The next class we got out of the round pen and rode in the arena with other horses at the walk. And on our last day of class we walked/trotted/cantered in the arena no issues what so ever! Then of course we started our month of winter break.
For that month (December) the only handling she had was being taking in and out of the field. To say I was a little worried about regression in her training was an understatement. Instead I come back to a a beautiful mare happy to see me and get some love! A very excited one at that :) Monday we just did some ground work. Showmanship stuff and round penned her with my saddle on. I was actually going to ride but we ran out of time. Wednesday I got on and we picked up where we left off. I was so impressed with her. Then today her owners came, so of course she had to pitch a fit when I first got on her (she did a lot of threatening but no explosion every happened). I brought her on a small circle and did some transitions in the walk and direction changes until I felt her relax and listen to me more. After she settled down (5 minutes or so) we had a great ride. It was a little tough since everyone was on circles in half an arena so we didnt have much room but she worked really well within that room. That is the nice part about this class. These horses will not be worried about riding with other horses at all! The bad part? its hard to get good work in when you are constantly stopping or steering out of someones way. After all there are 6 very green broke horses in half an arena together with a horse running in the round pen on the other half!
The farrier also came out today. I was gone for the time she got done last time but was told it was awful. I didnt really know what she was doing or anything but knew that she wasnt great at her hind legs yet so I wasnt super surprised. Today I got to see it. It is definitely straight fear. She would be okay and then freak.out. After a few times she realized that I was there with her. I just petted her while he had her leg up and by the end we got her fronts and her backs done. Much better then last time! Her backs are not completely done like a horse that would stand completely still but he got to rasp both of them without any freak outs. I was really proud of her! I really think we have a great bond and she really trusts me now. Its a great feeling to have :)
This was a long one but hopefully I will be able to keep up on her blog better this term now that we have some good stuff to write about!
"Put the saddle on Rose, she danced around. Round penned Rose, she was decent for it. Tried to mount Rose, she protested!" Basically the 2nd half of the first term!
She has shown signs of some really rough handling (not from current owners!) and I think she has some deep trust issues. We spent many, many weeks round penning then having someone hold her as I put my foot in the stirrup and hopped around her until she stood still. Finally I actually got to mount her about 2.5 weeks before the end of the term. We then spent the next 2 weeks mounting and petting as she hunched her back SO bad and just felt like a complete ticking time bomb. Once we got to start walking (with a ground person leading) she was very unsure of it. Very hunchy with her back still and had problems going forward. We went backwards and sideways and sometimes started going up, yeah it was real fun!
Then the Monday before class ended for the term it was like all the sudden she was fine. I mounted her as she stood still and had the ground person lead her around the round pen a few times then she unclipped us and we were on our own! Not only did we walk but we also trotted and she was awesome. Typical green bean things such as trying to halt a lot but never offered anything naughty. The next class we got out of the round pen and rode in the arena with other horses at the walk. And on our last day of class we walked/trotted/cantered in the arena no issues what so ever! Then of course we started our month of winter break.
For that month (December) the only handling she had was being taking in and out of the field. To say I was a little worried about regression in her training was an understatement. Instead I come back to a a beautiful mare happy to see me and get some love! A very excited one at that :) Monday we just did some ground work. Showmanship stuff and round penned her with my saddle on. I was actually going to ride but we ran out of time. Wednesday I got on and we picked up where we left off. I was so impressed with her. Then today her owners came, so of course she had to pitch a fit when I first got on her (she did a lot of threatening but no explosion every happened). I brought her on a small circle and did some transitions in the walk and direction changes until I felt her relax and listen to me more. After she settled down (5 minutes or so) we had a great ride. It was a little tough since everyone was on circles in half an arena so we didnt have much room but she worked really well within that room. That is the nice part about this class. These horses will not be worried about riding with other horses at all! The bad part? its hard to get good work in when you are constantly stopping or steering out of someones way. After all there are 6 very green broke horses in half an arena together with a horse running in the round pen on the other half!
The farrier also came out today. I was gone for the time she got done last time but was told it was awful. I didnt really know what she was doing or anything but knew that she wasnt great at her hind legs yet so I wasnt super surprised. Today I got to see it. It is definitely straight fear. She would be okay and then freak.out. After a few times she realized that I was there with her. I just petted her while he had her leg up and by the end we got her fronts and her backs done. Much better then last time! Her backs are not completely done like a horse that would stand completely still but he got to rasp both of them without any freak outs. I was really proud of her! I really think we have a great bond and she really trusts me now. Its a great feeling to have :)
This was a long one but hopefully I will be able to keep up on her blog better this term now that we have some good stuff to write about!
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